Towards a Tyranny of Tweeters? The Institutionalization of Social TV Analytics as

Market Information Regime

Allie Kosterich Philip M. Napoli

Rutgers University School of Communication & Information

Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication San Francisco, California

August 7, 2015

●  Nielsen ratings: primary currency for buying and selling TV audiences

●  Technological development, diversity of programming, increase in programming delivery platforms, continued audience fragmentation → inadequate measurement

●  80% of networks don’t qualify for Nielsen ratings (as of 2011)

Television Audience Marketplace

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

●  socially constructed mechanisms by which marketplace participants assess their performance and the performance of their competitors (Anand and Peterson, 2000) ○  e.g., movie box office reports, university rankings, book best-seller

charts

●  Nielsen Ratings: television’s primary market information regime

●  Social analytic-based ratings: television’s supplementary market information regime?

Market Information Regimes

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Greenwood et al. (2002) process of institutional change

Institutionalization

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Institutionalization in the TV Audience Marketplace

adapted from Greenwood et al. (2002)

Stage 1: Precipitating Jolts

●  Technological change

●  Audience fragmentation

●  Inadequate measurement

●  Destabilization of established ratings practices

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Stage 2: Deinstitutionalization

● “Backchannel” of audience data

● Emergence of social TV analytics

● Entrance of new startup players

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Stage 3: Preinstitutionalization

● Experimentation with social TV analytics

● Evaluation of engagement as alternative metric

● Exploration and participation by industry consortia

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Stage 4: Theorization

●  Moral legitimacy via connections between social TV analytics and “big data”

●  Pragmatic legitimacy via relationship between social TV activity and advertising recall

●  Pragmatic legitimacy via adoption of social TV ratings as currency for underserved stakeholders

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Stage 5: Diffusion

● Growing adoption of social TV analytics

● Utilization of social TV analytics in organizational decision-making

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

Stage 6: Reinstitutionalization

● Incumbent cooptation

● Social TV analytics as supplementary market information regime

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

●  Social TV analytics as supplementary market information regime. ●  Tyranny of Tweeters? Unlikely. ●  TV industry can (must?) embrace additional value criteria beyond

exposure.

Future research: ●  Cultural implications of additional MIR ●  Comparative analyses of “hit” programs ●  Assessment of social TV analytic methodologies ●  Examination of incorporation of social TV analytics in organizational

routines

Discussion and Future Research

Overview Theoretical Framing Institutionalization in TV Marketplace Conclusion

THANK YOU

Allie Kosterich @allkost

allie.kosterich@rutgers.edu

Philip M. Napoli @pmnapoli